NPR News: 03-31-2026 2PM EDT

0:00Lie, from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Pentagon says the next few days of the Iran War will be pivotal. At a news conference today, Defense Secretary Pete Hankseth disclosed that he was recently in the Middle East, found morale high among U.S. troops, and maintained that the U.S. is meeting its objectives in its war with Iran. General Dan Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the U.S. is targeting not just military sites, but nuclear research sites, warehouses, and factories in Iran. We continue to deliver precision strikes against key manufacturing nodes, component storage sites, research facilities deep within Iranian territory. And over the past 29, I'm sorry, 30 days, we've struck more than 11,000 targets. President Trump's assertion that Iran posed an imminent threat is the subject of heavy debate in the U.S. members of the president's own party question, his decision to go to war, contradicting a campaign promise to prioritize domestic issues.

1:01Well, it's hard to miss that prices at your neighborhood. Gas station have gone up again as a result of the increase in oil prices tied to the war. Triple A says people are paying on average more than $4 for a gallon of regular gas now. That average is a highs it's been since 2022, and some places a cost of gas is much higher. Even Pierce Camila Domenoski has the latest. Last year, gasoline prices were remarkably stable, a straight line, more or less. For most of this month, they've also been a straight line, almost straight up. Prices vary around the country, most expensive on the west coast, and least expensive in the middle of the continent, but they're rising everywhere. Crude oil is driving prices up as the war in Iran disrupts global oil trade, a switch to summer gasoline, and the typical seasonal rise in demand aren't helping. The average cost of public charging electric vehicles is 41 cents a kilowatt hour, triple A reports, up slightly, two cents from a month ago. Camila Domenoski, NPR News. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case tomorrow on the potential future of birthright citizenship.

2:05NPR Selina Simmons-Duffin reports on the effect this case could have on maternal and infant health. Bruce Leslie is president of first focus on children, a bipartisan advocacy group for children and families, which submitted an amicus brief in this case. It's in the words, birthright citizenship, so this is about babies. He says the effect a change in policy would have on babies is missing from the arguments over this issue, which is a serious oversight. This impacts every baby born in America. Without birthright citizenship, the family of every baby born in the U.S. would need to prove their citizenship. All new parents would have a new bureaucratic hurdle. An eligibility for health insurance, food and social support, and more would be thrown into question in the critical early days of life. Selina Simmons-Duffin, NPR News. From Washington, this is NPR. A warm, dry winter in the western U.S. is racing concerns about potentially dangerous

3:07wildfire season. In Colorado, the state's Department of Transportation is asking for unspent snow-clearing money to be used to prepare roads for the summer months. I'm a Vand in 90, with the conversation KUNC reports from Denver. Up to $12 million of snow contingency funds could be used to clear fuels along roads, but officials caution they'll need more to handle the season ahead. Bob Vyfer is the deputy director of operations for the Colorado Department of Transportation. He says this is the first time they've been able to request these funds due to the record lack of snowfall. We've actually hit our peak snowpack about two weeks ago, which means that's the most snow our mountains will see, which was not very much. And like most of our mountains are really down to dirt. The National Interagency Fire Center says parts of Interstate 70 and the western slope are expected to be at above average risk for significant fires. For NPR News, I'm M. of Vand in 90 in Denver, Colorado. Most TSA employees are getting paid again, even though the Department of Homeland Security still partially shut down because of a funding lapse.

4:09Agents went weeks without paychecks until President Trump issued an emergency order. The impasse led to acute staffing shortages in hours-long lines at airport security checkpoints. Meanwhile, yesterday, police in Palm Springs, California reported that TSA personnel detained a Marine. They'd found a live 25-millimeter explosive round in his checked baggage. They say the Marine claims he did not know the round was live. The Dow is up 951 points. It's NPR News.